What will be the player base of each faction?

[KenanJabr]

I understand that there's immaturity in every group in MMO's, but there always seems to be base characteristics to each one.  For example in WOW, the Alliance seemed to have a much younger crowd who treated their fellow teammates with immaturity, and Horde had a much older, dedicated fanbase, but had more of an elitist mentality.  That's not to say that this meant everyone in the Alliance held to this stereotype, but there were many more "facepalm" worthy moments when playing an Alliance character.

 

The factions in ESO will be as followed:

 

1) The Ebonheart Pact (The Nords, Dunmer, and Argonians)

2) The Daggerfall Covenant (The Orcs, Redguard, and Bretons)

3) The Aldermi Dominion (The Altmer, Bosmer, and Khajiit)

 

With this being said, how do you think the players of these factions will act?

 

Personally, this is how I feel on the matter:

 

1) The Ebonheart Pact will be the youngest player base and most likely have the most immaturity.  I say this because The Nords and Argonians are very popular races.  Additionally, players in this faction will be able to level up in Black Marsh, Morrowind, and Skyrim.  This will obviously be the "canon" faction, and will definitely be the faction with the most grief, though I will say: there is a large amount of appeal to this faction.

 

2) The Daggerfall Covenant will be a very down to Earth people.  They will be the faction that is, on a whole, very average, but consist of very chill people.  The Bretons and Redguard will definitely have appeal to a good number of people, since they're Humanoid, and if someone wanted to play as a tank? 

Well, I can't think of a race more tanky than the Orcs.  Bottom line: What this faction may "lack" in skill will be made up for by their great personalities.

 

3) The Aldmeri Dominion will be the "hardcore" faction.  They'll be the ones to primarily own Cyrodil, have progression raids, and guilds that invest the most out of all the factions of the game.  The reason I say this is due to the lack of appeal in the races; it's literally only cats and elves.  I mean, there isn't a single humanoid race and the land they own is much less appealing than that of the Daggerfall Covenant and Ebonheart Pact.  With all this said, it will be the least appealing faction (though I personally love these races), thus making it have a much older player base, leading me to believe it will have much more invested players.

 

This is only my opinion, so I'd like to know what you guys think!  What do you think the player base of each faction will be?

[David]

I agree with you on the Ebonheart Pact. It will be the one that fills up with the stereotypical cussing 12 year olds that are famous for spending inordinate amounts of time screaming in CoD lobbies. Why? The recent release of Skyrim is going to make the Nords so popular it's probably the only race the kiddies will even consider. 

 

The second most popular faction, in my opinion, will be the Aldmeri Dominion for similar reasons (minus the CoD demographic). The role the AD played in Skyrim glorified the name and is going to cause a lot of "non-conformist" types to want to play as them -- both to annoy their Nord friends and because the AD seemed to be an unstoppable juggernaut. High Elves are also one of the more popular races; they've historically had the best magic bonuses in the TES games and even the lore makes them out to be "above" the other races (Lol'd at using my own writing for a source).

 

Then you're also going to have people like Blake (a moderator here) who are obsessed with being felines because of some sort of furry fetish. I think Khajiits will be more popular than most think.

 

I completely agree that the Daggerfall Covenant will be made up of the laid-back sort. I just don't see it being as popular because none of the races stand out. As you said, they're humanoids, but I think it works against them. If people are going to play as a human, I think they're going to tend towards what they know - Nords. They're the most popular human race. Orcs, from what I see, generally don't have that large of a following (of course I could be wrong, we'll see).

 

Very interesting thread.

[Falkner]

Mm. I think it will be a variety of people in each faction- most every friend I have that's going to play ESO wants to make a character on each faction, if possible.

 

I have to argue on the Aldmeri Dominion being hardcore and having undesirable races, though. Elves are very popular in many games, and it looks like the elves in ESO will have more options as far as the face goes to appear appealing to a wider base of people.

 

Subject 1:

http://www.elderscrollslevelingguide.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/The-Elder-Scrolls-Online-Screenshot-Altmer-Lute.jpg

 

Now that could change, as it is still beta and models are subject to tweaking, but most of the elven models that I've seen, while usually angular like a TES elf ought to be, look fairly appealing or have the potential to be so.

 

Speaking of appealing.

Subject 2:

http://media.pcgamer.com/files/2012/06/faction3-590x246.jpg

 

Don't underestimate the power of hot (right?) CGI elf chicks. Not to mention the Khajiit have a sizeable fanbase and are pretty awesome and the internet loves cats, Bosmers = wood elves and wood elves = Legolas, and Altmer = high elves and high elves = blood elves. And we all know that blood elves made up at least 50% of Horde players in WoW... or was that 50% of the entire WoW playerbase? Point being, they're popular. Elves are much beloved, and ESO elves seem pretty enough to pass.

 

Also for that reason I call total nonsense on Horde being older and more mature. Maybe before Burning Crusade, but after? Belves, man. Awful belves. It was a plague. Goblins made it worse. Don't get me started on pandas.

 

Plus you may get a lot of Skyrim players who think to themselves, "Ah, the Thalmor were bad guys, so Altmer are bad guys, and if I play one I'll be ironic."

 

Plus TES fans haven't been able to see a whole lot of the Aldmeri Dominion's homeland, and it should be very pretty. We've already seen Skyrim and Morrowind, but entirely new, beautiful environments to explore? Sure we can see it at 50+, but why not delve into it from the beginning?

 

I think AD will be appealing to a broad spectrum of people just as the rest- but that largely includes a lot of young players, like in EP, who want to play a cool character... though in this case it'll be more like a pretty elf. Don't think Morrowind Altmer with their crazy awful hair and slightly terrifying, alien faces.... because that's probably not how most people will see them from looking at their models in ESO. They are far, far from unappealing.

 

I'd say that DC has the most 'unappealing' races and is suffering in numbers (in current polls anyway) as a result. A lot of people think playing humans is boring, and two of the three races are human. The third, orcs, is usually the least popular pick, although that could change perhaps with a faint bump in popularity due to other games. Bretons are about as generic fantasy human as TES gets, and Redguards are pretty badass but still human.

 

EP is most varied in that regard because you've got a popular human race, a popular elven race, and a popular beast race all in one. They'll probably be most popular... and probably easiest for friends with different tastes to reach an agreement on as far as picking a faction goes because of that. I reckon AD will be a very close second, if not at the same level, though. DC will come in last.

 

As far as the player bases? Eh. I'd venture to say "hardcore" players are often drawn in more by the underdog for that challenge. Plus it's often the non-appealing but still tough races that appeal (like pre-BC Horde), so I'd go with DC for the orcs and Redguards, but honestly, I think they'll all be varied, particularly given that we'll be on a megaserver. There's just too many people to interact with that there's going to be a large population of varied intensity doing PvP, PvE or RP. And Cyrodiil campaigns are loosely capped at 2000 people- for a grand population of, let's say 6 million, that's a total luck of the draw in terms of who you'll be fighting with.

 

tl;dr Kiddies love pretty elves and AD has pretty elves. People love cats too. EP has cool nords which is also appealing, plus a reptilian race which is fairly rare to MMOs, so that's cool. Also dark elves. Drow, anyone? DC has humans and orcs and is toughest faction. No, I'm not a biased elf-hater, why would you say that? Lies and slander.

[KenanJabr]

Mm. I think it will be a variety of people in each faction- most every friend I have that's going to play ESO wants to make a character on each faction, if possible.

 

I have to argue on the Aldmeri Dominion being hardcore and having undesirable races, though. Elves are very popular in many games, and it looks like the elves in ESO will have more options as far as the face goes to appear appealing to a wider base of people.

 

Subject 1:

http://www.elderscrollslevelingguide.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/The-Elder-Scrolls-Online-Screenshot-Altmer-Lute.jpg

 

Now that could change, as it is still beta and models are subject to tweaking, but most of the elven models that I've seen, while usually angular like a TES elf ought to be, look fairly appealing or have the potential to be so.

 

Speaking of appealing.

Subject 2:

http://media.pcgamer.com/files/2012/06/faction3-590x246.jpg

 

Don't underestimate the power of hot (right?) CGI elf chicks. Not to mention the Khajiit have a sizeable fanbase and are pretty awesome and the internet loves cats, Bosmers = wood elves and wood elves = Legolas, and Altmer = high elves and high elves = blood elves. And we all know that blood elves made up at least 50% of Horde players in WoW... or was that 50% of the entire WoW playerbase? Point being, they're popular. Elves are much beloved, and ESO elves seem pretty enough to pass.

 

Also for that reason I call total nonsense on Horde being older and more mature. Maybe before Burning Crusade, but after? Belves, man. Awful belves. It was a plague. Goblins made it worse. Don't get me started on pandas.

 

Plus you may get a lot of Skyrim players who think to themselves, "Ah, the Thalmor were bad guys, so Altmer are bad guys, and if I play one I'll be ironic."

 

Plus TES fans haven't been able to see a whole lot of the Aldmeri Dominion's homeland, and it should be very pretty. We've already seen Skyrim and Morrowind, but entirely new, beautiful environments to explore? Sure we can see it at 50+, but why not delve into it from the beginning?

 

I think AD will be appealing to a broad spectrum of people just as the rest- but that largely includes a lot of young players, like in EP, who want to play a cool character... though in this case it'll be more like a pretty elf. Don't think Morrowind Altmer with their crazy awful hair and slightly terrifying, alien faces.... because that's probably not how most people will see them from looking at their models in ESO. They are far, far from unappealing.

 

I'd say that DC has the most 'unappealing' races and is suffering in numbers (in current polls anyway) as a result. A lot of people think playing humans is boring, and two of the three races are human. The third, orcs, is usually the least popular pick, although that could change perhaps with a faint bump in popularity due to other games. Bretons are about as generic fantasy human as TES gets, and Redguards are pretty badass but still human.

 

EP is most varied in that regard because you've got a popular human race, a popular elven race, and a popular beast race all in one. They'll probably be most popular... and probably easiest for friends with different tastes to reach an agreement on as far as picking a faction goes because of that. I reckon AD will be a very close second, if not at the same level, though. DC will come in last.

 

As far as the player bases? Eh. I'd venture to say "hardcore" players are often drawn in more by the underdog for that challenge. Plus it's often the non-appealing but still tough races that appeal (like pre-BC Horde), so I'd go with DC for the orcs and Redguards, but honestly, I think they'll all be varied, particularly given that we'll be on a megaserver. There's just too many people to interact with that there's going to be a large population of varied intensity doing PvP, PvE or RP. And Cyrodiil campaigns are loosely capped at 2000 people- for a grand population of, let's say 6 million, that's a total luck of the draw in terms of who you'll be fighting with.

 

tl;dr Kiddies love pretty elves and AD has pretty elves. People love cats too. EP has cool nords which is also appealing, plus a reptilian race which is fairly rare to MMOs, so that's cool. Also dark elves. Drow, anyone? DC has humans and orcs and is toughest faction. No, I'm not a biased elf-hater, why would you say that? Lies and slander.

 

Lmao, you are so right about everyone loving Elves, and I'll admit: I did overlook that fact.  I can see all the female elves roaming around everywhere already... the struggle continues.

 

Aldmeri Dominion's territory is very interesting to me personally, for the same reasons you've mentioned, but I'm saying that wanting to indulge in a beautiful world will mostly appeal to a more mature crowd, and this maturity will most likely come out of veterans.

 

See, I wanted to make the argument that DC would be the most "hardcore" initially, but there was one thing holding me from saying it: kiddies like humans more than you think.  I know, Elves are their true love, like you've said, but hear me out.  Nords will most likely be the tanky guys with tanky racial bonuses (I haven't checked those out yet), and children tend to stay away from the whole concept of tanking, though you and I have seen our fair share of miserable tanks, who were in all likelihood kiddos.  Therefore, a lot of kids who want to be human will stay away from EP and see that there are two human races in the DC.  PLUS, these races both make for excellent DPS, which we all know attracts the most kiddies. This is where I see complications.

 

Like you said though, there's going to be a variety of people of all types of play styles and characteristics in every faction, and only time can tell who the most tolerable faction is.

 

On a side note, I personally think tanking as an Orc would be pretty badass.

[Brad]

I agree that AD will be more for the professionals

 

I read somewhere about its territory being closest to a major city or something along those lines?

 

I haven't actually read that much about TES, in case it doesn't live up to the hype, so I'm not all that dissapointed

[Falkner]

Pffft. Just like a haughty elf to try and assert dominance! We humans are not children, and we know how to rule- it's our legacy. We'll wipe you from the face of Cyrodiil and resume laying the foundations of righteous order without your interference.

 

And we'll assimilate the khajiit because d'awwwww, kitties.

 

Ahem.

 

With regards to female elves running around, on a bright note, at least ESO armor seems like it'll be a bit more pragmatic than most games? So we'll have more of this:

http://www.digitaltrends.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/The-Elder-Scrolls-Online-Aldcroft1.jpg

 

And less of this:

http://tec-cia.com.br/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/Human_light_armor_render_female.jpg

 

*crosses fingers*

[Musclemagic]

...So we'll have more of this:

http://www.digitaltrends.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/The-Elder-Scrolls-Online-Aldcroft1.jpg

 

And less of this:

http://tec-cia.com.br/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/Human_light_armor_render_female.jpg

 

*crosses fingers*

 

lollll yes, and it's about friggin time!!! 

[Tidezen]

I don't think AD will be known as the "pro" faction, because I think people are overlooking the RP crowd.  And the furry crowd.  I say this having played on the Moon Guard server in WoW for a number of years.  BY FAR the most RP-ed race on Horde was blood elves (no surprise), on Alliance it was night elves (again, no surprise), followed by humans, who may have been eclipsed by worgen when those got released.  The worgen RPers just exploded when that race was released.

 

Not to mention, there was always a huge glut of all-cat guilds (druids in cat form).  You couldn't swing a dead cat without hitting another one on my server.

 

Two big things about RPers I've gleaned over the years: A. they gravitate towards attractive races  B. many of them enjoy playing haughty races  

 

So you've got a faction with TWO types of attractive elves and a literal cat-person race?  Guess what, you're going to have ALL the furries and a good 60-70% of the casual RP population in your alliance then.  These people are not known for being hardcore raiders or PvPers.  

 

I do think the other two alliances will be basically like what people have said before.  I plan to have 3 characters, one in each alliance, so it'll be interesting to see what the differences are in each community.

[Eol]

I think the Ebenheart Pact will be by far the most popular, in large part because a lot of players will create Nords because of Skyrim. Also Dunmer will be popular. I hadn't thought of Argonians being popular but if they are, look out, Ebenheart might be 50% of players by themselves.

 

I think Aldmeri will be popular among RPers but also stealthers (Bosmer) and pure casters (Aldmer) (and therefore many of the hardcore players) and will be the second most popular choice.

 

IMO Daggerfall will be least popular, but closer to Aldmeri than Aldmeri is to Ebenheart.

 

FWIW, I will be playing as Aldmeri, originally was going to be a Bosmer archer but am leaning towards Aldmer Templar now. My son will be Aldmer DF.

[Seraiel]

I won't say that Daggerfall will be the strongest Realm, but the best players will play there. Question is, do you want to play with the ones having the largest numbers, or with the ones slaying the largest numbers? ^^

[Guest Guest]

It seems to me that some of you tend to forget the -you can play every race in every alliance-(BS). So i would not wonder about elves flooding the ep or df.

[Seraiel]

I think you got a wrong information there. Imperials can be played in any faction, but not the normal Races.

[DanGer]

nope. pre-order bonus. join any faction with any race.

(Explorers Pack: http://elderscrollsonline.com/en/news/post/2014/01/29/pre-order-eso-now )

[Seraiel]

Thx for that info!

[shinn]

EP = mainstream, WTJ cuz mass, hispter nords

 

AD = RP, alot of couple/female games cuz elves lol this means no competition.

 

DG = Underdogplayers -> elitisim, orcs gonna smash you!

 

just my personal option of view

[TheBonesXXX]

When I played the beta I found that I enjoyed the company of the most adults in Ebonheart, that was after I played AD and found that most of the younger crowd enjoyed AD. I have no clue about DC because I wasn't able to play it. Over all, I think AD will be the most popular because it has them most sexual appeal out of all of the factions. 

[Rally]

 Over all, I think AD will be the most popular because it has them most sexual appeal out of all of the factions. 

 

I can't understand why the most off-putting, homo race has the most sexual appeal?

[Musclemagic]

I can't understand why the most off-putting, homo race has the most sexual appeal?

 

Rally, I think he was referring to the female characters... XD

[Jigglypuff223]

im joining  Ebonheart, i love Morrowind too much not to go back there =D and i dont think ill be alone, i bet alot of Morrowind players will pick ebonheart.